A four-time Oscar nominee, a favorite of director Stanley Kubrick, and
multiple mobsters. Let's take a closer look into the lives of the stars we've lost so far in 2022.
Iconic singer and actor Meat Loaf, who won a Grammy for his hit ballad "I'd Do Anything For
Love (But I Won't Do That)" and appeared in films like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and "Fight
Club," died in January 2022. His manager confirmed the news to The New York Times,
but did not immediately reveal the cause of death. He was 74.
Born Marvin Lee Aday, the Dallas native adopted his childhood nickname as a stage name
early in his career. He got his big break when he auditioned for the off-Broadway musical
"More Than You Deserve" in the early '70s. He won a role and formed a lifelong partnership
with writer Jim Steinman, who would go on to pen Meat Loaf's debut album, 1977's "Bat Out of Hell."
Todd Rundgren produced the record, and everyone from the New York Philharmonic to members of the
E Street Band contributed. It was an unlikely hit that critics begrudgingly praised, though
Meat Loaf would struggle to replicate its success in the years that followed. After a few flops,
he dropped 1993's "Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell," which included his Grammy-winning single.
In terms of films, Meat Loaf is best known for playing Eddie the delivery boy
in 1975's "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and former bodybuilder Bob
Paulson in 1999's "Fight Club." Other notable credits include 1992's "Wayne's World,"
2001's "The 51st State," and "Ghost Wars," on which he recurred between 2017 and 2018.
Comedian and actor Bob Saget, best known for his long stint on the sitcom "Full
House," died in January 2022 in his hotel room. There was no evidence of drug use or foul play,
according to Chief Medical Examiner Joshua Stephany. He was 65. His wife,
Kelly Rizzo Saget, said in a statement, per Variety,
"I am so completely shattered and in disbelief."
Saget made his TV debut as Bob the Comic in a 1981 episode of the Tom Hanks sitcom
"Bosom Buddies." In 1987, he won the part of Danny Tanner on "Full House,"
which became a career-defining role. Saget played the widowed father of three from 1987 to 1995,
and reprised the role in the Netflix-produced sequel series, "Fuller House."
"Well just remember, when children seem the least lovable, means they need love the most."
It was often hectic on set, but Saget had fond memories of working with his
onscreen kids. The actor told Vanity Fair in 2014,
"Jodie Sweetin was four when she started, Ashley and Mary-Kate were nine months,
Candace was nine — you're talking about exceptionally talented young kids."
Elsewhere, Saget was known as the voice of the older Ted Mosby on "How I Met Your Mother"
and as the host of "America's Funniest Home Videos," which he fronted for almost a decade.
French actor Gaspard Ulliel was best known to international audiences for his turn
as the young Hannibal Lecter. Sadly, he died due to a skiing accident in January
2022, as reported by Deadline. He was 37.
Ulliel began his career on French television in the late 1990s,
and was landing film roles by the early 2000s. His big break arrived in 2004,
when he landed the part of Manech in "A Very Long Engagement." Ulliel won his
first Cesar award for this movie and would make the transition to Hollywood soon after,
playing the titular killer in the 2007 prequel film "Hannibal Rising." It was one of his biggest
roles at the time of his death. But the actor was also about to make his debut as a Marvel villain.
Sadly, Ulliel died a few months before Marvel's "Moon Knight" dropped. He plays Anton Mogart, aka
Midnight Man, a black market antiquities dealer who goes head to head with the titular hero.
Emmy winner Louie Anderson, who appeared in films like "Ferris Bueller's Day
Off" and "Coming to America," died of complications from cancer in January 2022,
his publicist confirmed to CNN. He was 68. Tributes from across the entertainment world
poured in after the news broke. Screenwriter Carl Kurlander wrote in a Deadline tribute piece,
"I was one of the lucky ones who got to call Louie a friend. He made me
and others in his orbit feel like family."
Anderson decided to give stand-up a go after his colleagues dared him to go on stage.
The audience loved him, and it wasn't long before he was making his mark in the comedy world.
Anderson's talent and career were multifaceted.
He was as comfortable in front of a crowd as he was fronting game shows. Indeed,
he would become a fixture on American TV screens as the host of "Family Feud" from 1999 to 2002.
Anderson plied his trade on shows like "Grace Under Fire," "Touched by an Angel," "Chicago
Hope," and "Scrubs," but some of his best work came in the twilight of his career.
Anderson was nominated for Emmys three years running for his performance on the
Zach Galifianakis-led FX comedy "Baskets," winning in 2016.
"Oh, presents! Unnecessary."
Hollywood legend Sidney Poitier, widely seen as the first Black movie star, died in January 2022
at the age of 94, as confirmed by The New York Times. Barack Obama said in a tweet,
"Through his groundbreaking roles and singular talent, Sidney Poitier
epitomized dignity and grace, revealing the power of movies to bring us closer together."
Denzel Washington said of him in an interview with People,
"He was a gentle man and opened doors for all of us that had been closed for years."
Poitier earned his first credited film role, Dr. Luther Brooks, in 1950's "No Way Out."
He actively avoided demeaning roles, and by the end of the decade, his persistence began paying
off. He became the first Black man to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1959,
blowing critics away with his turn as an escaped prisoner in "The Defiant Ones."
He missed out on that occasion, but would make history a few years later when he became
the first Black man to win that award for his performance as an traveling laborer in 1963's
"Lilies of the Field." How did Poitier feel about opening so
many doors for Black actors and artists everywhere? He once told Oprah Winfrey,
"It's been an enormous responsibility. And I accepted it, and I lived in a
way that showed how I respected that responsibility. I had to."
Up-and-coming actor Moses J. Moseley was found dead in Georgia in January 2022.
His agent, Tabatha Minchew, told The Hollywood Reporter,
"Moses was a very talented person, with a bright light around him. He will be missed
deeply by his friends, family and fans. Always a ball of happy energy around him."
The cause of death was not immediately revealed by authorities, who launched an investigation
to determine the circumstances. He was 31. A native of South Carolina,
Moseley studied at Georgia State University before settling down in Atlanta.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, he worked as a model before transitioning into acting.
Moseley's first credited role was playing Michonne's pet walker Mike on "The Walking
Dead" in 2012. He would appear on the hit AMC show half a dozen times over the next few years.
Moseley went on to play Tic Toc on USA Network's "Queen of the South,"
an usher on HBO's critically-acclaimed "Watchmen" series, and Kadeem on Irv Gotti's
"Tales." His most notable feature film was 2017's "Attack of the Southern Fried
Zombies," in which he played Robbie. Moseley had several projects in various stages of
production when he was reported missing by his family, including "Hank" and "Cadillac Respect."
Academy Award winner William Hurt — who owned the '80s with hits like "The Big Chill" and
"Gorky Park" — died in March 2022. The actor was 71 years old, and as his son,
Will, said in a statement via Variety,
"He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes."
Although not initially publicly confirmed, we now know that Hurt died from complications of
prostate cancer; he was first diagnosed in 2018. Born in Washington, D.C., Hurt studied theology
at Tufts before finding his passion in acting. The actor made his debut film performance with
"Altered States," a psychedelic trip that mixes mushrooms, religious imagery, and body horror.
He followed that up with the sexy noir flick "Body Heat" — the film that propelled him to stardom.
After that, Hurt won a Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of gay prisoner Luis Molina in
"Kiss of the Spider Woman." It was just the first of four times he'd be up for an Oscar,
with the Academy nominating his work for "Children of a Lesser God," "Broadcast
News," and "A History of Violence." Fans will also recognize Hurt from projects like "The Village"
and "A.I. Artificial Intelligence." Of course, the man also left his stamp on the superhero genre
by playing Thaddeus Ross, the MCU antagonist who pursued Bruce Banner and Natasha Romanoff.
Estelle Harris came to fame as an actor well into adulthood,
most familiar to TV audiences as Estelle Costanza, the combative,
shrill-voiced mother of George Costanza on the mega-popular '90s sitcom "Seinfeld."
"Oh, I can't believe it. Frank, come here!."
Harris appeared in nearly 30 episodes of the series. She also used that distinctive
angry voice in a number of other projects post-"Seinfeld," including the "Toy Story"
movies, as Mrs. Potato Head, "Brother Bear," "Teacher's Pet," and "Futurama."
But Harris was much more than an argumentative, uniquely voiced maternal figure. She had more
than 100 acting credits to her name, all of them coming in her late 40s and beyond.
Harris started her acting career in community theater, regional theater,
and summer stock before segueing into TV with appearances in commercials.
According to CNN, she once appeared in 25 nationally broadcast ads in one year.
According to a statement from Harris' son, Glen, via agent Michael Eisenstadt,
Estelle Harris died on April 2, 2022. A cause of death was not provided; the actor was 93.
Never a leading man and almost always a supporting character in broad comedies and family movies,
Gilbert Gottfried became a household name because of his public and on-screen persona.
It's hard not to forget that perpetually irate,
squinting malcontent screaming his thoughts in a shrill, scratchy, overblown New York accent.
"I can't believe it! I just don't believe it!"
After a major breakthrough as a member of the cast of "Saturday Night Live" in the early 1980s,
Gottfried became a fixture in '80s and '90s movies, oft-rerun cultural touchstones for kids
and teens who grew up in that era. He played Sidney Bernstein in "Beverly Hills Cop II,"
Mr. Peabody in all three "Problem Child" movies, and voiced Iago
in "Aladdin." He also voiced the Aflac duck in a long-running series of insurance commercials.
That's to say nothing of his dozens of other appearances in TV shows and movies,
making use of his purposely annoying all-purpose characterization. Gottfried was also a
relentlessly performing stand-up comedian and a dark and twisted one favored by other knock-around
comics, as evidenced by his appearances on Comedy Central's series of celebrity roasts.
On April 12, 2022, Gottfried's Twitter account broke the news that the actor and comedian
had died following an unspecified "long illness." Gottfried was 67.
Mike Hagerty was among the most prolific and recognizable character actors of the last 40
years, popping up in more than 100 movies and TV shows. He usually played a gruff,
blue-collar, working man type with a big mustache and pronounced Chicagoan accent.
Among Hagerty's most familiar roles, there's Davey, a cable TV station employee in "Wayne's
World" and apartment building superintendent Mr. Treeger on "Friends," who becomes Joey's
ballroom dance partner. He also played best friend of the main character in the
original "Overboard," an auto shop owner on "Lucky Louie," and a main cast role
on "The George Carlin Show." Hagerty recently played a captain on multiple episodes of
"Brooklyn Nine-Nine," appeared on "Shameless," and played farmer Ed Miller on "Somebody Somewhere."
On her Instagram page, "Somebody Somewhere" star Bridget Everett reported that Hagerty had
died on May 5, 2022, in Los Angeles. A cause of death was later revealed to be a seizure
as a result of an adverse reaction to antibiotics. He was 67 years old.
One of the finest and most recognizable actors of his era,
Ray Liotta alternated between rugged leading man roles and quirky character actor parts,
usually playing tough guys, criminals, and intimidating figures,
as well as frequently sending up his public image as a man of simmering, unhinged intensity.
"Who you think we're talking to?"
Liotta was a prolific actor, appearing in more than 100 movies and TV shows since the 1980s.
He broke out in a big way with back-to-back roles as the ghost of Shoeless Joe Jackson
in 1989's "Field of Dreams" and real-life Mafia big shot Henry Hill in "Goodfellas,"
Martin Scorsese's classic crime epic that would earn six Oscar nominations. That film
solidified Liotta's specialty of playing men just barely on one side of the law or the other,
similar to his performances in "Something Wild," "Cop Land," "Unlawful Entry,"
"Narc," "Observe and Report," "Shades of Blues," and "The Many Saints of Newark."
According to Deadline, Liotta was in the Dominican Republic in May 2022
filming the movie "Dangerous Waters," when he died in his sleep. He was 67.
In a career spanning more than 200 roles back to the early 1970s, Philip Baker Hall became a
quintessential character actor. He's probably best known to audiences as Lt. Joe Bookman,
a "library cop" tenaciously investigating Jerry Seinfeld for a decades-overdue book
on the comedian's titular show. You'll also likely recognize him as the intimidating but
secretly sweet neighbor Walt on "Modern Family," Doctor Morrison on "Curb Your
Enthusiasm," and hippo game show host Hank Hippopopalous on "BoJack Horseman."
Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson also cast Hall in prominent roles in his first
three features — "Hard Eight," "Boogie Nights," and "Magnolia."
According to Hall's daughter, via The Hollywood Reporter,
the actor died at home in Glendale, California, on June 12, 2022. Hall was 90 years old.
A chameleonic and frequently employed character actor, Joe Turkel racked up
a whopping 142 credits over a career that spanned from the late 1940s to the 1990s.
Of course, he's most closely associated with the films of Stanley Kubrick, who cast the
actor in three films. Turkel starred in "The Killing" and "Paths of Glory," but he's most
famous for his appearance in "The Shining," where he played the creepy ghost hotel bartender Lloyd.
Turkel was virtually retired by the 1980s, when Ridley Scott hired him
to play replicant maker Dr. Eldon Tyrell in the 1982 sci-fi classic "Blade Runner."
Other than those major film works, Turkel was a constant presence over decades of television,
with one-shot roles on dozens of memorable shows, including "Miami Vice," "Fantasy
Island," "Kojak," "The Andy Griffith Show," "Bonanza," "Ironside," and "Combat!"
According to Variety, Turkel died in a Santa Monica,
California, hospital on June 27, 2022. He was 94.
One of the best and most definitive actors of his generation, James Caan starred in
some of the most highly regarded films of the latter half of the 20th century.
Usually playing tough guys, criminals, intimidating dudes,
macho men, and inscrutable patriarchs, Caan paid his dues on 1960s TV dramas like "Naked City,"
"The Untouchables," and "Wagon Train." Moving into different roles in the early 1970s, Caan starred
as the title character in the adaptation of John Updike's "Rabbit Run" and played
real-life football player Brian Piccolo in the acclaimed made-for-TV tearjerker "Brian's Song."
"Aye-yuh, sounds like a ball."
He found probably his most iconic role ever as Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather,"
for which he received an Oscar nomination. Later in his career,
Caan would land memorable starring roles in "Alien Nation," "Misery," "Honeymoon in
Vegas," and "Elf," and join the frothy NBC drama "Las Vegas." Sadly, on July 7, 2022,
Caan's family announced on Twitter that the actor died the previous evening. He was 82.
Tony Sirico found the role of his life as Peter Paul Gualtieri, aka Paulie Walnuts,
on HBO's universally acclaimed modern-day Mafia saga "The Sopranos." An explosive, funny,
and loyal lieutenant to mob boss Tony Soprano, Sirico provided comic relief as Paulie Walnuts,
offering up terse one-liners and amusing mispronunciations.
"What do ya hear, what do you say?!"
He played similar characters in "Goodfellas," "Bullets Over Broadway," and "Mighty Aphrodite."
In recent years, and after "The Sopranos" ended, Sirico traded
on his image and tendency to be typecast, playing tough characters on comedy shows,
like a gangster on "American Dad" and a gruff dog on "Family Guy." Sirico's manager confirmed
to media outlets that the actor died on Friday, July 8, 2022. He was 79.
Actor Dale Critchlow, who was best known for playing Lyle the farmer in the offbeat cult
classic "Napoleon Dynamite," died in February 2022, as reported by Deadline. He was 92.
A native of Utah who moved to Idaho in his 30s, Critchlow landed his small but memorable role
by pure chance. The film was shot on location in Idaho, where Critchlow lived and
worked as a real farmer. He needed help with his animals one day, so his wife reached
out to the mother of writer-director Jared Hess. He told East Idaho News,
"My wife called Jared Hess' mother and asked if one of her boys was there.
He came over, and he had a friend with him. I drove the truck out into the pasture,
and the sheep came over. They grabbed those bucks and pushed them into the
truck [...] and then later, he came back and [said], 'I want you to be in my movie.'"
Critchlow became well known in his hometown of Preston after the film became a success,
and was always happy to pose for pictures. He went on to feature in another comedy,
2006's "Church Ball," which was considerably less successful. But Critchlow remained famous
for his turn in "Napoleon Dynamite," despite not being overly keen on the film. He said in 2020,
"I thought it was kind of funny in places, and in a few places, it was kind of dragged out."
Other celebrities lost this year: